1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of networks. More particularly, this invention relates to protecting user privacy on a network.
2. Background
As computer technology has advanced the use of networks has continually increased. Broadly, a network refers to a system which can couple together two or more computer systems such that the systems can communicate with one another. One characteristic of a network is the fact that, in order for two computer systems to communicate with one another, each needs to be able to identify the other. Typically, each computer system has an address associated with itself and computer systems in the network can identify one another via these addresses.
However, one problem which is present when accessing other computer systems via a network is privacy. Typically it is not possible for a computer system to request information from another computer system via the network without divulging an identifier, such as the address, of the requesting computer, and thereby also divulging the identity of the user. Yet, there are situations where individuals prefer to have their access to other computer systems via a network remain private.
One example of this situation is a user's access from a client computer system to a host computer system via the Internet. The host system is able to maintain a record of the Internet addresses of all other computer systems which have accessed the host, including the client system. Another example is a device which is coupled to the Internet and configured to monitor all traffic which passes by it on the Internet. This device could be, for example, a router or gateway which assists in the transferring of packets to various locations on the Internet. This device could access all packets that are routed through it and maintain a record of the source and target Internet addresses of each packet.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a system which prevents a host system or other device monitoring accesses in a network from accurately identifying which computer systems have accessed which other computer systems.
As will be described in more detail below, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for protecting user privacy by providing an inaccurate measure of network systems accessed which achieves these and other desired results which will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description that follows.